Author's note: I realize that it might be good to clarify, that when Rose was a human, she had an older brother named Steven. That's where she got the name for her own son.

The girl at the end of the chapter also is not Pearl. I know that it's a bit vague =) but it will be explained.


"Spider!" she screamed shrilly. She picked up the first thing in sight- an umbrella from the stand near the door- and rather than swing it at the offending arachnid, simply threw the umbrella in the generally direction of the spider before proceeding to scream as it crawled toward her.

"Rose? Are you okay?" a voice called. A man that only had to be about twenty years old walked into the room. He was tall, about six feet total, and very thin. His hair was thick and a dark brownish color, but his eyes were incredibly kind.

"Steven! It's in the corner!" Rose cried, refusing to look in the direction where she had thrown the umbrella.

Steven grinned, glancing down at the spider and then back at his sister.

"Rosie, it's okay. He's not going to hurt you." Steven placed one hand on the floor, allowing the spider to step onto his hand, before he opened the door to the house and gently tossed it outside.

Rose stared at Steven, eyes widening as she seemed both incredulous and disgusted.

"I don't know how you can stand that! Didn't it try to bite you?"

Steven shrugged in response, and smiled. "That's simply a risk I've gotta take if I was going to help it. Besides, Rose, mom always said that it was good to love everything, especially the little things."

Rose shook her head, clutching it in her hands. "That's never something I could do and you know it," she shot back teasingly when she finally looked up. "Besides, I'll always have you around to protect me."

Steven shook his head. "There's going to be a time when you can't say that. You need to get married, before anything." She let out a loud groan upon hearing this.

Rose was about sixteen years old. She was a pretty thing, with thick blonde curls and fair skin.

She shook her head at Steven.

"I don't really like any of the people that come by here," Rose said, dismissively shaking her head. Her hands played with the long skirt of the frock she wore. "I mean, really, all lot of them are snobby."

"You're snobby," Steven teased.

"You're snobbier," Rose shot back.

They both laughed, but froze when they heard someone begin to ring the warning bell from outside.

There was a long pause, and Steven finally spoke.

"Get into the wardrobe. Go...go and hide. Quickly!"

Rose began to scurry down the hall, lifting the edge of her skirt off of the ground, before she turned back and looked at Steven.

"Go!" he yelled this time, ushering for her to keep going. Rose remained frozen where she stood, hearing footsteps ascend the house next door. Steven shook his head, hurrying forward before he picked Rose up off of the ground, and began to run with her down the hall. He walked into his own bedroom, opened his wardrobe, and gently shoved her inside.

"Steven, I-"

"There's no time. Keep quiet, and I'll handle this."

The wardrobe shut and Rose couldn't see herself in the blackness, but listened as her brother's footsteps echoed back down the hall. She could have sworn that she heard a scream next door; someone female.

Steven's heart raced as he walked back down the hall, and heard a stiff but firm knock on the front door where he and Rose stood only moments before. He carefully turned the knob, only to have the door impatiently thrown open at him as soon as he began to open it. Darkness from the outside was only slightly cut by the candle light from within the house, and in his doorway, Steven gazed at a group of young male soldiers.

"We came for the girl," the soldier at the front of the pack said. "She's at an age where she can be enlisted...?"

Steven confidently and seriously shook his head 'no.' None of the young men looked surprised. The one who spoke simply looked exasperated at this.

"Look, can we just skip this part?..." the soldier began, trying to shove his way through the door, but was cut short when Steven gave the solder a swift punch into the stomach.

Steven held his ground, waiting until now to look angry. "I won't allow you to violate my home like you did all the others," he said finally.

The soldiers looked down with meek curiosity at their now slightly-crumpled leader as he stood upright, and shook his head.

"You know what happens next."

Steven's eyes widened slightly, be he refused to withdraw. "Perhaps you can enlighten me."

From behind their cloaks, each soldier drew a small knife. Before he really had time to react, Steven realized that he was being stabbed, and slowly dropped to the ground just outside his doorway. He stared in shock as red began to stain the ground.

Each soldier was now without his knife, and each soldier was careful not to step over Steven as they walked into the house and began to look for Rose.


Only a few feet away, watching all of this happen, a little girl stood in a tree, watching the events and shaking her head. She was dressed in a long, white dress, and looked well-bathed. A small, pink gemstone was placed carefully on the bridge of her nose.

"What should I do to help this?" she asked out loud, and began to wait for a reply as she watched the soldiers search the house. It was as if nobody in sight had heard her.


I'm not gonna lie, this was difficult to right. I had it in concept, already, but I kept wondering if it was good enough.

Either way, I like how Rose's character is already developing. I was thinking that this took place in the early Victorian era, since she has got to be well over a century old